


Mouth to Mouth, Heart to Heart

by Denebola_Leo



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: CPR, Drowning, F/M, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, Mouth-to-Mouth, Not Beta Read, Repressed Memories, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 12:24:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20724170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Denebola_Leo/pseuds/Denebola_Leo
Summary: Finally back from the Lifestream, Tifa had uncovered Cloud's true self. But, he needs to survive drowning in mako if he wants to make something of it.





	Mouth to Mouth, Heart to Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This was made because of an idea on the Cloti Discord. Thanks to SailorStarDust1 for the cut script dialogue, and to Seni for giving a glance. And thanks to the Discord for all the fun!

_ Who am I? _ _   
_ _   
_ __ Where am I?

_ Everything is so noisy and green... _

“Tifa? Tifa!”

“Hey, she’s comin’ to!”

Tifa winced at the bright green glow and let out a wet, gurgling cough. There was a strange and potent tang in her mouth that reminded her of metal, and something almost like the astringent taste of the inside of a lemon rind. Mindlessly she gasped for air that quickly invaded her lungs, sharp and painful but functioning again, finally! Someone’s big, warm hand was patting her back as she slowly got on all fours, coughing up mako and spitting it out of her mouth.

Still panting, Tifa stared with clearing vision at the ground beneath her. It was littered with debris...the earthquake! Cloud! “Cloud…” Tifa croaked out, he voice raspy and quiet. “Where?”

She looked up to see...Barret, who was staring at something near them. Tifa moved her gaze, and saw Cid shaking someone sprawled out on their back. There were brown boots and dark, baggy pants...Cloud! The Soldier who was never a Soldier, the boy next door. He was real! He was alive!

She had taken his hand in hers when they fell, and then she found out the truth. She knew him for who he was now after mending his psyche in the Lifestream. Her heart felt like bursting out of her chest, because she knew. She knew him, and...and he went through all that pain just to get close to her.   


Giving Barret’s arm a squeeze to get his attention, she smiled up at him as she got to her feet with his help. “Cloud...he’s real.”

Barret’s face was tense. “Yeh, but...he’s in real trouble right now.”

Her brows crunched up into a frown, not understanding what he meant. “He...he made it. He’s right there. There.”

“Yuffie, do you know CPR?” asked a big red beast. Tifa blinked, trying to remember...Nanaki.   


“N-no, what about you, Vinny?!”

Vincent looked uncomfortable. “Erm...it’s something I may have forgotten…”

“CPR…?” Tifa stumbled over to them, and she stood over Cloud with Barret still holding her, her legs slowly growing more steady and her mind more sure.

His face was pale, and his usually pink lips were blue and splattered with mako. He was completely still.   


Shock rose in her chest, and she shook her head. The absolute audacity! “Cloud! Cloud, you idiot! Why, after you finally realised who you are! Everyone’s worried about you! Going off on your own…I’m not going to let you do something so selfish!”

Lowering herself over his body, she checked for a heartbeat and breath; there was none. Her strong hands sat over his chest, and she began chest compressions. Ten, then a gentle breath into his mouth. More compressions, more breath. She wasn’t going to give up on him, not after everything, not after he finally became whole again. “Everyone wants to meet you,” she said before she blew another breath into his lungs.   


She could only hope that Cloud wasn’t going to give up on himself again.

* * *

  
  


_ All Cloud could see was white. Bright, jarring, white. There was nothing but that, because a large light was shining in his face. _

_ “No: 00048, Type/YM, serial number 397808.” _

_ Whose voice was that...That’s right…Hojo. _

_ “And what about you, then? Hmph…what beautiful Mako eyes. Can you speak?” prodded the scientist, barely discernible at the edge of his vision. _

_ “Uh….a….ah.” _

_ Hojo scribbled on something out of sight. “Do you feel something? Can you hear someone calling you? Do you want to go somewhere?” _

_ “...I want to go…home…Mom…Tifa…” Cloud pushed his body against his restraints as his voice cracked from saying those names. _

_ A disappointed hum. “Hm…this one’s a failure. Just dump him in the mountains or something.” _

_ They dumped him in a mako vat. He remembered. Years went by in a blink, his body saved for some purpose along with...Zack. Zack, his best friend. The Soldier who befriended a nobody grunt like himself. _

_ Who died protecting him outside Midgar. _

_ A flash of pain went through his chest as the images poured out to play in front of him. The truck ride into Midgar, the ambush...he had been so useless! Zack should have left him to die, but he didn’t, and now he was dead. It wasn’t right. Why was he so useless? _

_ The Buster Sword...a memento, but...he didn’t deserve to carry it. After everything he had done...He was no hero. _

_ A puff of air blew on his face, and he saw her. Tifa at the train station, her big, ruby eyes showing her shock and surprise. She insisted he stay with her, despite...not really knowing who he was. He didn’t know who he was.  _

_ Always a little tense, but...that smile. _

_ There she was, teasing him about his hair...but she liked his hair, right? It looked like a chocobo, she said. Now she was tending a monster bite on his arm, cooking a meal… _

_ He had never been so close to Tifa Lockhart. It was a childhood dream come true, and like a dream it had been fleeting. Because he failed her, and he was sorry. He was sorry he failed his friends, he finally had friends that he promptly failed, and worse, he had failed Tifa. Because he was a puppet. _

_ He thought he was a puppet. _

_ Tifa stayed by his side, he remembered. Those ruby eyes, wet with tears, sad smiles, murmurs that he would get better...was she telling herself that, or him? He wanted to say so much, but his mouth and mind wouldn’t allow it. _

_ And then… _

_ She fixed his head. _

_ He heard her crying out for him in the Lifestream. He promised to be there for her when she was in a pinch, and she was certainly in one right then and there. He found her, then she found him, the real him, caged in his mind. He was whole again, and they were in a sea of green… _

_ Tifa was above him, and...was she about to kiss him? _

_ Was this a dream? _

_ Well, he might as well enjoy it. He wasn’t sure if he was dying, but his head was buzzing and his lungs felt raw, and there was a flutter in his chest...that hurt a lot, too. _

_ Her warm, soft lips planted themselves on his, and she tasted like...life. Living. The sweet honey he only had a tiny taste of in the last couple of weeks was now caressing his lips, blowing air into his mouth...he glided his tongue behind her teeth as one hand found itself on the small of her back and the other went through her wet, tangled tresses. Kissing her, even if just in a vision, was absolutely thrilling. _

_ “Tifa, thank you. I’m coming back.” _

* * *

Tifa felt like she was in some sort of vice or trap as her patient wrapped his arms around her, his tongue rubbing against hers as he pushed his head up to meet her. She couldn’t help but close her eyes after the shock of surprise, her arms threatening to give out as they slowly turned to jelly in Cloud’s embrace.

“Hey! You did it!” Yuffie cried out. 

Cid raised a brow, a small grin weaving its way on his face. “He sure is.”

Her eyes popped open as soon as the cheers and voices of her friends reached her ears, and it seemed Cloud had come to his senses, too. They were both gasping for breath, his hands still firmly plastered to her form. “...Sorry, I...thought you were an angel,” he muttered out.

Nanaki cocked his head, disbelief in his ochre eye. “...Are you supposed to do that to angels?”

They detangled, the both of them red as beets as they sat on the ground. Barret saved him. “Let’s get you two a room. Ya need to recuperate.”

Tifa was as relieved as Cloud when Barret uttered those words. She nodded slowly, then took Barret’s arm as he helped her up, Vincent doing the same for Cloud. While she could walk on her own, Cloud’s legs seemed less than helpful, and in the end he had to be carried into one of the few remaining buildings in Mideel.

She tried to hold back a smile when Vincent blandly complained that he was heavy.

On separate beds when the group left them to rest, Tifa couldn’t help but to head over to Cloud’s bed and sit on the edge. The mattress creaked a little as she put her hand over his. His cheeks were still pink, and there was a bashful look to his shimmering Mako eyes.

There was a lot she wanted to say after entering his subconscious in the Lifestream, but she decided to start with this: “why didn’t you tell me when you came back to the village?”

Cloud pursed his lips, but in the end relented. “I was disappointed in myself. When I left, I made a promise, said I’d make it into SOLDIER, but I was just a regular grunt. I couldn’t bare to have people in the village see me like that, so pathetic.” A look of shame crossed his face.

She tilted her head to the side, a frown forming. “What do you mean? It doesn’t matter if you didn’t make it into SOLDIER, as long as you tried your best.”

He shook his head and looked away, still shamed. “But I hated seeing myself like that. And I couldn’t stand myself even more for trying to hide it. Sephiroth hadn’t erased me from existence. Maybe I was already gone, ever since I tried to hide myself from my childhood friend.” He shyly returned his gaze to her. “Sephiroth just took advantage of that…”

Tifa nodded, and gingerly at first, she ran her fingers through his locks. His hand tenderly touched her cheek in response. Did he remember, she wondered, what transpired in his mind? What he admitted to her…

“Well, he can’t take advantage of it anymore,” she assured him.

Cloud finally smiled, his lips parting ever so slightly. “Yeah. Because...I have you.”

Because they had each other. All they had was each other, but that was okay in her eyes. She didn’t want anyone else.


End file.
